Pictures

On Friday, August 1st we had the wonderful opportunity of celebrating Caleb’s fifth birthday with friends at Severns Valley Baptist Church at the In-door playground and rock climbing wall.

When Caleb woke up the morning of his birthday, he thought he had to wait until his birthday party to turn five. He jumped for joy when we told him the entire day was his birthday and that he was already five when he climbed out of bed. He opened a few gifts in the morning from Mommy, Daddy, and grandparents and he hung out with Daddy before the big event.

This week has been full throttle to say the least. I guess the busy weekend carried over into this week. On Saturday, we went to the Glendale Crossing Festival, a one day event with a parade and around 500 booths of homemade crafts and excellent, festival food. Sunday afternoon, Caleb and I visited the Bernheim Forest for their annual event called Color Fest. The event has lots of cool things to do for little ones like; a hay ride, pumpkin painting, animals to look at, insects to look at, live music, and best of all a giant maze of hay. Pictures of both of these events have been taken, but have not been processed by the MeddersNation Labs at this point (well Bernheim is now uploading so I can include them in this post).

Fast forward to yesterday (Tuesday), and I took the day off of work to attend the Heartland Montessori School’s Field Trip to Lincoln’s Birthplace followed by a picnic and then a trip to the Crawford Farm’s Pumpkin Patch with Caleb. We had a great time! Most of the kids from the 2 classes at his school were present and we watched a movie about Abraham Lincoln before heading to the beautiful structure housing the log cabin he lived in once upon a time. We then spent some free time running around outside and then made our way back to the visitor center to complete our Junior Ranger packets. The kids took their oaths to protect the wilderness and received their official Junior Ranger badges. After our picnic in the same area, we went to the farm for adventures in a corn maze, hay maze, a tunnel of doom, livestock, and giant slide big enough for daddy to use. Caleb had a wonderful time spending the day with his classmates and learning about Abraham Lincoln.

Tonight, Caleb dressed up as Bob the Builder and we drove a few miles to Grace Heartland Church for their annual Trunk or Treat event. There were lots of trunks and a huge crowd of people dressed up and ready for candy! They had a DJ with fun music, a dance floor, and free food and games inside the gym as well. Caleb didn’t have any problems wiggling his way in and out of the candy hungry traffic and he was polite to everyone he said, “Trick or Treat” to.

Wow! Caleb and Daddy had a wonderful day at the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, KY today. Thanks to a recent deal on LivingSocial, we had two half-priced tickets to what turned out to be quite a thrilling adventure back in time.

Horse-drawn carriages were trotting around in the parking lot as we found a place to park at the train station. The place was packed, so we jumped in line to claim our tickets and then headed over to the loading dock were western characters were standing by waving their guns and ready to lasso the young ones if they strayed too far away from their parents. As soon as we heard the call, “All aboard!” we made our way to the main door to board the train and begin our journey.

While the train was in motion, the Marshall, a sheriff and his deputies made their rounds through the cabins and Caleb even got to hand the conductor his ticket when he came by.

We made a stop at a local market in Boston, KY where the sheriff confronted a couple of thieves and got into a little shoot out, but the thieves were no match for the sheriff and his deputy as they took them to the ground. Several of the officers showed off their marksmanship as a man threw up a coin and they shot them out of the sky putting a hole in each coin that went up. Can you believe it? They never missed a coin as they shot at them with blank bullets! It was cool, because they gave many of the kids the piece of metal after it hit the ground.

On the way back, the wounded thief and his gang surrounded the train with their horses and got into a shoot out with all of the officers on board. The gang came onto the train and held the lawmen at gunpoint while they looted the train; which is being donated to charity, but I can’t remember which one. They had all the passengers put their hands in the air as they searched the train for money bags and whatever cash they could get from the passengers. Then, they rode off into the sunset and we headed back to the train station to check out the museum and meet with the cast. And… horse rides for the kids!

All-in-all, we were there for about three hours and Caleb was very patient and had an absolute blast! He held up his finger making gunshot noises as he retold his adventure to his mamma when he got home. I would definitely recommend the train ride to local friends and especially if you’re willing to pay the two extra dollars to go on a day when they are having a special event like the train robbery.

This week we celebrated Caleb’s third birthday. We all had so much fun on his special day! A water slide, slip-n-slide, cookie cake, and lots of little friends filled our backyard.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us!

It was so cute to hear Caleb sing “Happy Birthday” to himself throughout the week and to see how excited he was the day of his party. We brought out some water slides and let the kiddos cool off as streaming music filled the air. Aunt Lynda created an awesome treasure hunt for all the kids to participate in to help Caleb find his present! A special thanks to all those who helped out; you made the day that much more of a treat for us.

It already seems like Caleb is more mature and fitting right into the role of a three year old. Our little “Baby Caleb” is growing so fast! Here’s a slideshow from his birthday party: Enjoy!

The MeddersNation has hit the new year feet first people and I have not had time to get these photos online, it’s the downside to having a basic Internet Service Provider and the new camera makes some large files that take longer to upload. Sure, I know I could resize the files, but that takes more time!

Aimee is back in school and has her hands full with classes 5 days a week. Caleb started a new school called Montessori and is learning lots, like we live on Earth or erf as he calls it.

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s been uploaded tonight.

Christmas fun:

We had several get-togethers and for the first time, had the Barzee Crazy Christmas at our house. It wasn’t quite a standing room only situation, but the house was packed to say the least. Packed house with Barzee’s = fun times!

Bourbon Distilleries:

Tim’s father in-law was in town around the 1st week of January and he’s a fan of Rye whiskey so we set out to taste some bourbon. First stop was Four Roses, then Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve with a little snow to top it off. Wild Turkey had a very nice special blend that caught my taste buds and their new facility which opened in 2011 was pretty fancy too. Our guide was a little spontaneous and took us inside the barreling warehouse despite the fact that it was supposed to be locked up that day.

Water Beads:

That’s right, the beads typically used to keep plants hydrated are also fitting as a sensory project for kids. What better place for Caleb to play with these tiny balls of water than in the table daddy built for him just for special projects like this one. All of us spent time with this project and Caleb clearly enjoyed sifting his hands through the moist container of colorful beads.

New Haircut:

Caleb got a haircut this week. His curls are still present though very short, you can tell they aren’t ready to give up yet. I’ve been told his curls grow out the more you cut them. He’s been doing very well lately. He started a new school with a solid learning environment and his teachers told me today that he is far more advanced than his peers. He speaks so clearly and very often! We’re going to try to get some audio clips online soon so you can hear how much he’s progressed since you last saw him.

We thought of some words he has a hard time saying that we tend to favor, because they sound so cute! Here’s a few that I can think of now.

Ketchup = sounds like; cats-a-cup

Elevator = sounds like; alligator

Vitamin = sounds like; money – he’s way off on this one and if prompted slowly can say it, but otherwise it’s money!

Storage:

Last, but not least is the storage area Tim helped me add to the storm shelter under our front porch. The space is accessed from the basement, but does not actually count as square footage for listing purposes though it is quite large. The shelves are 16 feet long and 2 feet deep and were made to hold a few plastic totes we have and holiday decorations. Thanks Tim! I did a little before and after shots and tried my best to get the camera in the same spot for each shot since I couldn’t leave it in there while we were working.